A number of efforts have been made to attach information to gravestones, monuments and, in some instances, directly to burial caskets. The information typically concerns a decedent and comprises the decedent's name, date of birth, date of death, and perhaps a religious icon or some mention of significant achievements, etc. The information usually appears within the gravestone or monument or on a plaque or tablet which may be attached either to the monument or to the casket.
On caskets, one type of plaque conforms to the shape of a section of the casket and remains attached to the exterior surface of the casket after the decedent is entombed. Another type of plaque is attached to the casket when the decedent is laid-out for viewing, but it is later detached from the casket and placed inside the casket before burial.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,835,014 to Dioguardi discloses a clip-like attachment device for temporarily securing a name plate to a casket, a vault or a similar structure. The attachment device comprises a lengthy base plate with an elongated slot adjacent to one of its ends. The base plate is affixed to the top surface of the casket with a screw and terminates at the opposite end thereof in outwardly turned pivots. A top plate member of the attachment device co-acts with a spring-tongue projection which is integral with the base plate. By utilizing the attachment device, the name plate may be quickly clipped in place or removed from the casket without causing any disturbance or noise during a funeral service.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,833,554 and 5,007,148 to Bida disclose a plaque which provides information about a decedent and is mounted to a casket. The plaque comprises a thin sheet of metal foil which is inserted in a typewriter to produce indentations thereon. Once a typewritten message has been imprinted onto the foil, it is mounted on a base and a layer of clear plastic is provided around the plaque. Once the plaque has been prepared, it is removably mounted on the casket and is disposed at a 45 degree angle for viewing by a person standing adjacent the casket. The patents also disclose a locking bracelet for permanently securing the plaque to the remains in the casket subsequent to the funeral ceremony and prior to burial. Although the '554 and '148 Patents enable information about the decedent to be memorialized on a plaque, the procedure for preparing the plaque is extremely complex and time consuming. The typewritten text must also be prepared by a trained individual, long before the plaque is displayed to the public.
While the above patents provide certain advantages with respect to displaying information about the decedent, none of the references enable an individual mourner or mourners to personally participate in the information generating process, particularly with respect to the content of the information. Mourners typically express their grief by sending sympathy cards or flowers to the decedent's family, or offering a eulogy at a wake or funeral service. Thus, there are a limited number of ways for mourners to express their emotions prior to, during, and after, a funeral service.
In view of the above, there is a clear need for a device which will enable mourners to simply, personally, freely and spontaneously express their grief by creating an image or message on the exterior surface of a casket. The device must be simple so that virtually all mourners can generate a desired image on a burial casket. In addition, the device must enable mourners to personally participate in generating the image on the casket so that they can each participate in their own way. There is also a need for a device which enables mourners to freely express themselves, in any manner they chose, unconstrained by the conventions of others. Finally, there is a need for a device which allows a mourner to spontaneously generate a message on the casket while bidding a "final farewell" to the decedent.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that it would be advantageous to provide a casket having an image receiving surface capable of receiving symbolic information in various forms. While there are a number of devices and methods for securing plaques to the exterior surface of caskets, there is presently no casket or method for enabling mourners to create an expression of grief or other emotion on the exterior surface of a casket.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a burial casket.
It is another object of the invention to provide a bereavement casket having an image receiving surface formed on the exterior portion of the casket.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a bereavement casket having a medium for introducing permanent markings on the image receiving surface.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an aesthetically appealing bereavement casket.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a method for forming an image receiving surface on an exterior surface of a casket.